The Handbook of Discourse Analysis

Typology and Discourse Analysis 167
Table 8.1
Voice alternations in Koyukon and Dyirbal
N A RD A TP P RD P TP
Koyukon (a) 100 2.22 5.45 2.91 3.76
(b) 110 4.99 3.90 1.51 6.83
(c) 50 – – 8.45 1.86
Dyirbal (a) 225 3.42 2.00 5.19 1.16
(b) 44 1.45 2.20 10.57 0.86
Data sources: Thompson (1994) (Koyukon); Cooreman (1988) (Dyirbal)
Each of the labels (a), (b), and (c) in table 8.1 refers to a particular construction in
these languages, and the data in these tables can be used in combination with the
characterizations of the different voice types given above to label these constructions
in a cross-linguistically comparable and consistent manner. For both of these languages,
the (a) construction is direct/active, having an Agent which is somewhat
higher in topicality than its Patient (but the difference is not as great as would be
characteristic of an antipassive construction). The Koyukon (b) construction has a P
which is very high in topicality (the lowest RD and highest TP of any of the constructions
here), and its A is not particularly high or low in topicality; this is therefore an
inverse construction. The A in the Koyukon (c) construction, on the other hand, is
very low in topicality (in fact obligatorily absent), and so this is a passive construction.
The Dyirbal (b) construction is particularly characterized by having a very
nontopical P (high RD, low TP), and so we can call this an antipassive construction
(see Givón 1994 for similar discussion of a number of other languages).
2.1.2 RD and word order
Linguists have also applied RD to investigating word order variation. Studies from a
variety of languages have found that preverbal arguments have on average a higher
RD than postverbal arguments (there does not seem to be any corresponding clear
pattern relating TP and word order). Table 8.2 shows data in this regard from a
number of languages.
Table 8.2
RD and word order in four languages
Ute (s) Ute (o) Biblical Hebrew Spanish Chamorro
Postverbal 1.81 (86) 4.21 (14) 6.52 (357) 3.54 (41) 7.45 (200)
Preverbal 5.49 (114) 7.78 (46) 10.64 (112) 8.55 (170) 10.90 (96)
Notes: Numbers are RD (N-size). All data are for subjects, except Ute (o), which is for direct
objects.
Data sources: Givón (1983b) (Ute); Fox (1983) (Biblical Hebrew); Bentivoglio (1983) (Spanish);
Cooreman (1983) (Chamorro)